DIY Book Covers

Recently, I've been dabbling with creating my own book covers. The transition from relying on dedicated graphic artists specialising in book covers to doing them up myself is a little tough. Just like how it is with writing and managing my own books, the uneasy feeling of uncertainty descended upon me at every step of the way. This is what I came up with so far. These are just concepts though - there are watermarks in there because I haven't purchased the images yet:

Argh... Far from finished.

Neither is this anywhere near done, despite this guy here being version 2 of the concept.

As you can see, I'm still working on it. There's a lot of things wrong with the covers - and if I can tell, then something major is wrong with the covers. But that's also a good thing, because if my sensibilities exceed the merits of my design, it means I can improve on my work.

I've been seeking out feedback from my fellow authors, and they told me as much about how to improve the designs. A unified author font, for example. But personally, I think the book title for My Model Son looks home-made. With cookies and cream, that's a good thing. But here, not so much. Something about My Model Son's centre piece feels really odd as well. I'll have to explore my options, and I have one month to do it and polish it off.

Oh, and I believe I've just given away a hint of what's to come after my anthology short story (Tentatively named My Model Son). 😏

If I can pull my book covers off, it's going to save me a fortune! At the cheapest price, one book cover could cost me US$50, so if I can produce book covers adequately for my current and next batch of books, it's going to save me something around the region of US$250. Now, if I want to guarantee the quality of my book covers, I would have to shell out US$100 - US$200 for the average horror cover, which would set me back by US$500 - US$1,000! For a little perspective, the ceiling of that is above my entire expenditure of my current books!

Anyway, I've delayed the ending of this blog post for too long. Moral of the story? It's awesome to put the I and INDIE in indie authors and indie books. See ya'll!